Thread: Whitworth, just when I thought I had it all worked out

Hi,
After the war BSW did not go back to the old size but BSF (British standard Fine) did and some spanners are marked with both sizes eg 1/2 W 9/16 BSF on the same spanner end.
Regards

camo
in my opinion you can't go wrong with the old siddons/sidchrome spanners. some of the others you might look out for are dowidat,stahl wille, britool or king dick all good quality old tools.

Thanks for the info guys. I noticed with the Dowidat, that some are Australian made and some are German made, any difference between the two?

Cheers,

Camo

Originally Posted by camoz

Thanks for the info guys. I noticed with the Dowidat, that some are Australian made and some are German made, any difference between the two?

Cheers,

Camo

At a guess dowidat being a german brand they would be the older of them .I have some of both and cannot fault them either,also they have a connection to gedore somewhere along the way as well

You will probably over pay for king Dick they have become collectable especially with the Hot Rod crowd….But if you get them cheap I guess they are a worthwhile investment.

Originally Posted by 1thumb

At a guess dowidat being a german brand they would be the older of them .I have some of both and cannot fault them either,also they have a connection to gedore somewhere along the way as well

According to GEDORE Tools Catalog Page, German Hand Tools

Gedore Tools is one of the largest tool companies in Germany. GEDORE is a letter combination of (GEbrueder DOwidat REmscheid). Gedore was founded by 3 brothers (gebrueder) named Dowidat from Remscheid Germany.

And from here DOWIDAT tools!? - The Garage Journal Board

Dowidat was a company founded 1949 by one of the remaining 2 Dowidat brothers (the 3rd. died at younger age) because of disagreements of the 2 (much like the "Dassler" brothers --> Adidas/Puma). So the one Dowidat brother stayed in the Gedore company (founded by them) and the other left to open up his own "Dowidat" company. Later Dowidat merged with "Belzer" to form "Belzer-Dowidat" and then in 1988 they were bought by Bahco. The Dowidat name then disappeared and tools were sold under the Bahco-Belzer brand but thats history too.

well that clears that up thanks colin62

Dufor is another great Australian brand made long (1930s) before Sidchrome was even thought of! I believe that Dufor spanners were based/copied? on Herbrand tools, another long gone great American brand. A gentleman called ? Coffey made Dowidat in a little workshop in North Richmond NSW, I've been told they were better than the German ones? certainly they were equal! I have 1963 cat.. so they were still being made then! In general terms there were many brands prewar2 alloy (chrome vanadium) spanners made that have lost their chrome or maybe never had any, that with a bit of a clean up will still give good service. There was I think a lot of completion for the mechanic's tool dollar in that period particularly in America, and if it looks well design and made it usually was. Graeme

Originally Posted by anglesmith

Dufor is another great Australian brand made long (1930s) before Sidchrome was even thought of! I believe that Dufor spanners were based/copied? on Herbrand tools, another long gone great American brand. A gentleman called ? Coffey made Dowidat in a little workshop in North Richmond NSW, I've been told they were better than the German ones? certainly they were equal! I have 1963 cat.. so they were still being made then! In general terms there were many brands prewar2 alloy (chrome vanadium) spanners made that have lost their chrome or maybe never had any, that with a bit of a clean up will still give good service. There was I think a lot of completion for the mechanic's tool dollar in that period particularly in America, and if it looks well design and made it usually was. Graeme

Graeme
Yes, I visited the North Richmond workshop a number of times, assisting with their grinding enquiries.
They were known as Dowidat & Coffey & that was in the early 1970s from memory.
The operators doing the abrasive belt grinding of the hardened spanners sat on low cushioned stools, perhaps a foot off the floor. The abrasive belt heads were designed low, so that the leather clad operators, could rest their arms on their knees, whilst grinding, thus improving output & reducing fatigue.
Apparently, this was the same method that was used in the German operation.
Purchased a number of sets of sockets & various spanners, from them at that time, & they have all been good & stood the test of time.
But then again I can say the same for Australian Sidchrome, a number of sets that are also excellent.
regards
Bruce

Thank you Bruce for that bit of first hand information, I have added it to my catalogue.! BTW I have been meaning ask, whereabouts did you run your business from? It wasn't at Rydalmere by any chance? as I remember getting a lot belts made up by an "abrasive" firm there at least 25? years ago! I may have even cleaned the windows of this firm as I regularly did several of the firms in that area including the Saw Works. Graeme

Originally Posted by anglesmith

Thank you Bruce for that bit of first hand information, I have added it to my catalogue.! BTW I have been meaning ask, whereabouts did you run your business from? It wasn't at Rydalmere by any chance? as I remember getting a lot belts made up by an "abrasive" firm there at least 25? years ago! I may have even cleaned the windows of this firm as I regularly did several of the firms in that area including the Saw Works. Graeme

Graeme
I originally started my business in my garage at home around 1975 then moved to a factory at Castle Hill, till 1983. Had salespeople & staff however it was tough going (making a reasonable profit) in a tough market place. We beat the opposition by fast overnight delivery & giving the customers what they wanted, when they wanted
Moved back home, after building a substantial workshop office (on 5 acres)
Things went well for years, using the same systems to beat the big companies at their game.
We could provide service & methods of doing jobs, whereas other companies could only provide a product under their terms.
I still believe there are golden opportunities in Australia for niche specialised manufacturing,.... not volume.

Retired now & that building is now a beaut workshop with all sorts of machines & goodies,I love working in there at my pace & interests.
So thats my story.
regards
Bruce

Hi Camo,
just for interests sake here is a pre-war Whitworth and a post-war British standard Whitworth.

Phil
IMG_3974.jpg IMG_3975.jpg IMG_3976.JPG

Head sizes are something that Toyota (and maybe most of car manufacturers) have fiddled with over the years. For example...an eight mm bolt has a 12mm spanner size head, but when you go to buy eight mm bolts at the bolt shop they will have a 13mm spanner head. The industry has been able to cope well with the changes.
(I have probably opened myself to major critisism with with that paragraph )

Well this weekend another market trip, and I now have a full set of ring spanners (Dowidat and one king dick), and all but one open ended, and I did a few upgrades as well and a few larger than set sizes.

i found it interesting that out of all that I had bought (most prior to knowing two sizes existed, I only had one post war spanner).

Phil, thanks for taking the time to list the photos, I am pretty good at guessing a metric and imperial head, when I am going for a spanner, but terrible at guessing a whitworth, so had I not picket up two spanners side by side to compare quality and pick one, I would probably have never known.

I guess the only time it is worth knowing is when you are buying a spanner to complete a set. At about $2-4 for the ones I just bought it wouldn't matter so much if you had a set of pre-war spanners and bought that other one to complete the set and it turns out to be post war (now you have a double up just labeled differently, and you are still missing the one you want). Where it might really count is when you are looking for the really large ones, I bought one off evilbay a few months back, needed a 1" Whitworth (I knew this after checking the nut with a callipers and a google search to determine what whitworth size matched the calliper reading), as it turned out the spanner I purchased was a prewar spanner and the one I needed. At the price I paid, including postage I would have been if I had found out then of the two whitworth spanner sizes.

Cheers,

Camo